Daily protests to continue until ‘the people have been heard’

Daily protests over the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led city administration’s “poor service delivery” will continue until “the people feel they have been listened to”, says Ndelela Mavungavunga of the SA National Civics Organisation (Sanco).

The group has been co- ordinating “protests by residents” in Imizamo Yethu, Gugulethu, Crossroads, Delft, Masiphumelele and Lwandle for the past two weeks, “against the DA mayor’s failure to deliver toilets, water, electricity, housing and city police”.

Executive mayor Helen Zille has slammed the ongoing demonstrations as attempts by the ANC to “actively disrupt service delivery” so that the city can be accused of non- performance.

She said earlier that the protests formed part of a well-organised plan by the ANC to destabilise the multi-party government. Cape Times

InternAfrica is inclined to agree with Mayor Helen Zille - the past three years we have participated in authorised peaceful sustainable housing demonstrations to the the department of Housing offices. ANC MECs Richard Dyantyi, Marius Fransman are among the respondents in the Provincial ANC and Municipal housing structures who have never engaged with proven research or InternAfrica.

At a meeting with InternAfrica in parliament offices 29/03/2006 the Special Advisor (Saths Moodley) to the ANC minister of Housing (Lindiwe Sisulu) actually said:

“You are in the wrong office”

InternAfrica is focused on the habitat (sic housing) environment of Cape Town and the Western Cape.

Lack of intellectual environmental engagement by ANC officers with regard to proven sustainable carbon efficient and at 1/4 the cost Cannabrick solution, is evident. Incomparrison to MEC’s Lindiwe Sisulu, Nomandia Mfeketo and Richard Dyantyi’s costly, and failed N2 Gateway project which they touted as a National Model to resolving the housing backlog by 2014.

InternAfrica will continue to address and inform all those affected by the Cape Town habitat environment crisis (and solution) as made available in news, housing, Google Earth placemark, fire & flood stats, pictures, demonstrations, petitions, press, World Urban Forum participation & sustainable development research.

“Based on perceived objective reality, to achieve these outcomes. It is only logical that our experience, or dynamic objective reality mediated by practice, will serve as our teacher, telling us whether the circumstances necessitate any changes in our target dates.” - Thabo Mbeki

Research makes no difference to the human habitat environment unless it is translated into policy, practice, promotion and products.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein

Development at last for the residents of squalid Asazani

RAVAGED by poverty and squalor, the 600 shack dwellers huddled in makeshift homes at Asazani, near George, are oblivious to the panoramic view a few metres away of farmland rolling down to the sea.

The shacks are part of the burgeoning Thembalethu, south of George.

In stark contrast, to the west in the nearby seaside village of Herold‘s Bay, Ou Baai golf resort has a similar vista with luxury homes and a golf course.

Asazani – isiXhosa for “we don‘t know one another” – was mentioned by Western Cape Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane recently when he visited George as part of his community safety campaign.

He remarked that the settlement should have an immediate name change to something more positive.

“A name like that is not good for people, it does not give them hope,” Ramatlakane said after hearing that the settlement was a high crime area.

There are no street lights and people are vulnerable to attack after dark.

It was originally part of the farm Sandkraal. The farm labourers stayed and became the first tenants of Asazani.

In 1997, the area officially took on its name as people from nearby Zone 6 were moved out of their shacks to make way for RDP homes. They did not know their new neighbours. As the RDP homes were finished and their occupants moved back, migrants filled up the spaces left behind. Asazani is now a sprawling settlement with new shacks springing up daily. - The Herald

N2 Gateway tainted with graft, Sisulu told

Crossroads residents have appealed to Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to use Red Ants, security guards from Gauteng reputed to be fearless, to evict beneficiaries of the N2 Gateway housing development who make extra money by renting their shacks in Boys Town.

Lusaka informal settlement resident Sindiswa Godongwana asked the minister to obtain court interdicts against these beneficiaries.

Sisulu was at an imbizo at the Crossroads sports complex on Sunday to hear details of the plight of Cape Flats people who are using the bucket system and waiting for formal homes.

Godongwana was cheered when she claimed officials responsible for N2 Gateway brought relatives from the Eastern Cape to occupy the flats at the expense of people who had been waiting for years.

Nomgqibelo Dyantyi speaks about the housing problems of the Crossroads community with Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu looking on. Photo: Andrew Ingram, Cape Argus

She said spaces in Lusaka were being sold for R130 and R570. “There is so much corruption in the way people are allocated houses and space, we no longer trust our leaders.”

Thubelisha, appointed by the department of housing to be the project manager for N2 Gateway, was criticised for not addressing people’s needs.

The development entails the building of 25 000 permanent homes, as well as schools, sports complexes and other facilities.

Thulani Katyeni, of Boys Town, said he was tired of living in his leaky shack. “We were promised flats, but we see even children born in 1984 getting houses before some of us who have been waiting for more than 12 years.”

Sisulu acknowledged that the N2 Gateway rents were beyond the means of most people waiting for homes.

Mncedisi Twalo, chairperson of the Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers, warned that people were losing patience.

He said only a third of the N2 Gateway units were being allocated to people renting lowly accommodation in home-owners’ backyards, despite some of them having lived in such shacks in Gugulethu for more than 30 years.

Sisulu acknowledged there had been scant consultation with the community since work had begun on the Gateway project. She said it would go ahead as planned because the national government had allocated money for it. Ministry officials would be sent to fast-track the development. - Cape Times

Corruption in housing highlighted during imbizo

Lack of development and corruption within the local housing projects were among issues raised at a community imbizo held at the Crossroads Sports Complex in the Cape Peninsula today.

Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, and Mcebisi Skwatsha, the Western Cape ANC secretary, attended the imbizo.

Some of the residents from Boys Town informal settlement in Crossroads say they have been waiting to have their houses for eight years now. They told Sisulu that they have lost faith in their local councillors and that they want houses to be built in their areas and not elsewhere.

Sisulu will meet with a committee representing residents of Boys Town tomorrow to discuss the problems which led to lack of development in the area. - SABC

Residents of Crossroads on the Cape Flats will have an opportunity to highlight their plight when Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, visits the area for an Imbizo later this morning. Residents are concerned that they have been waiting for houses for more than 20 years and are still using the bucket system. - SABC

N2 Gateway ‘does not have a business plan’

The provincial department of local government and housing has spent almost R92-million on the N2 Gateway project without a formal business plan.

This has been disclosed in the auditor-general’s report, included in the department’s 2005/2006 annual report made public this week.

According to the auditor-general’s report, the decision to go ahead with the project flouted a memorandum of understanding signed by national Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu, MEC for local government and housing Richard Dyantyi and then-mayor of Cape Town Nomaindia Mfeketo. M3.

Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for the provincial department of local government and housing, said the department had had to go ahead with the project before approval was finalised because of the “great pressure for housing delivery” in the province.

Had the department waited for the business plan to be finalised, development “would have been delayed”, he said.

Under the N2 Gateway project, begun last year and touted as a national pilot for low-income housing, about 22 000 units are to be built for low-income earners in Langa, Gugulethu, Crossroads and Airport Industria.

But by October 13, only 326 units had been allocated to beneficiaries since the first phase of the project was officially opened on July 17.

The auditor-general’s report noted that of the R91 913 076 used, R6,5-million had been spent in planning and designing units for the Boystown informal settlement, which is included in Gateway. The people of Boystown rejected the plans.

They say they have waited more than 20 years for formal housing. But when the department proposed building blocks of flats, they rejected the plan, demanding “proper houses”.

They said they were not consulted and one of their requirements was that they have a yard in which they could perform traditional rituals.

A member of the Boystown residents committee, Mlungisi Noludwe, said people living in the settlement were “never interested in N2 Gateway flats and were forced to accept the plan”.

failed promises

“People … have concerns about the flats, such as ownership,” said Noludwe.

The R6,5-million was paid by the City of Cape Town, but later reimbursed by the provincial department of housing.

The auditor-general’s report said the amount had not been “accounted and disclosed accordingly” in the department’s financial statements.

Tshose said the project had been stopped when it was found “the cost of the construction would exceed the subsidy”.

DA provincial spokesperson on housing Michael de Villiers said the project was a “huge failure and unfortunate waste of valuable funds” intended for housing the homeless. He said Dyantyi had costed each unit at R80 000, excluding the rehabilitation of the land, at the start of the project, but this had risen to R120 000 by May.

“This was a result of lack of planning.” - West Cape News

Sanitation a national priority: minister

Lindiwe Hendricks, the water affairs and forestry minister, says sanitation remains one of the main development challenges internationally. She was speaking in Bloemfontein while launching the provincial bucket eradication strategy.

The Free State has a backlog of around 120,000 sanitation units. Hendricks says to meet the national target of eradication by 2007 will require an unusual business approach.

“Not having universal access to basic sanitation by our people negates the efforts made by our government to rid the country of poverty. The poor are particularly faced and affected by the lack of sanitation.”

She says sending out a message that sanitation is a national priority and should be regarded as such by everyone. - SABC

Call for removal of Minister of housing

Moving down to Wale Street, the supporters shouted, down with Dyantyi! Down with the ANC! The crowd held strong saying he should be removed as MEC for housing and fired from local government. - Bush Radio

Politics hampers housing delivery

“It is a threat to the future viability of our democracy. It is a direct assault on the constitutional right of voters to choose their government through the ballot box. And it risks undermining stability in the region.”

In the past seven years, Cape Town had had five mayors and an acting mayor.

“Under normal circumstances we should only have had two. This has to stop.”

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille

Stroller - Street Children of Cape Town

Stroller is a feature length documentary shot in Cape Town, South Africa about two street children’s journeys to make sense of their pasts, survive the present and search for the strength to get off the street. In doing so, Stroller provides a fresh and provocative perspective on the social, cultural and economic elements that push children onto the streets, and the elements that hold them captive.

Preview the film by John Henion: capetownstroller.org

Aluta continua in Cape Town

Capetonians eagerly awaiting the outcome of the bitter dispute between Democratic Alliance mayor Helen Zille and the African National Congress’ Minister of Housing & local government Richard Dyanti, over the city’s system of governance will have to wait a little longer. However, the battle for control of the city claimed its first casualty this week. - M&G

Blaze leaves hundreds homeless near Fish Hoek

About 300 shacks were destroyed and more than 1,000 people left homeless after a fire devastated the Masiphumelele informal settlement near Fish Hoek early on Thursday.

‘I lost everything, I only have the clothes I’m now wearing’

This is the second time within two weeks that the informal settlement has been hit by fire.

Residents and their children were slowing picking up the pieces and rebuilding on Thursday.

Disaster Management spokesman Greg Pillay said: “More than 1,000 people were displaced and 292 shacks burnt down.” - Cape Times

‘Affordable’ Houses No Longer Cheap

The cost to build starter homes in low-income areas, typically priced between R120,000 and R240,000, has surged by close to 50% over the past two and a half years.

This price increase is placing huge strain on affordable housing delivery, says Jopie van Honschooten, head of the Banking Association SA’s affordable housing initiative. Van Honschooten says lengthy delays in municipal planning, zoning and approval processes have pushed up developers’ holding costs significantly. This has seen the price of the same starter home of about 40 sq m rise from an average R132,000 in January 2004 to R195,000 in June this year.

Research commissioned by the Banking Association SA shows that the shortage of affordable homes aimed at households earning between R1,500 and R7,500/month, is currently at around 650,000. Van Honschooten says unless housing delivery is speeded up significantly the backlog could rise to 750,000 units by 2010.

He says SA needs to build at least 135,000 new homes/year over the next five years to close this gap by 60%. Only around 15,000 new affordable homes were built in 2005. - Property 24

Housing backlog increases despite new homes

South Africa’s housing backlog has widened due to growing urbanisation and demand despite the building of 1,9-million new homes for the poor since the end of apartheid in 1994, the government said.

Of the total figure, 1,6-million houses worth about R37-billion have already been transferred to poor households, according to a review released late on Tuesday by the national treasury.

“Despite these delivery rates, the housing backlog has grown,” it said, adding that the number of dwellings classified as “inadequate” — mostly shacks — had grown 20% from 1,5-million in 1996 to 1,8-million in 2001.

“This is because of the increased demand and the pace of urbanisation, with urban populations growing at 2,7% per year,” it said.

The report also expressed concern about the quality of state-subsidised houses, saying there was “emerging evidence that some of the houses did not comply with the required standards”.

The South African government aims to eradicate shack dwellings by 2014. State spending on housing has grown from R4-billion in 2002/2003 to R5,1-billion last year.

It is projected to reach R8,7-billion rand by 2008/09. — Sapa-AFP

Housing fraudsters could get amnesty

An amnesty for those who have committed housing subsidy fraud is in the pipeline, South African housing director general Itumuleng Kotsoane said on Thursday.

He was addressing a media briefing at Parliament on the national housing picture and on backlogs.

During question time it emerged that plans were in place to request a presidential proclamation allowing for an amnesty process.

“We don’t want to send through the amnesty … a sign that corruption pays and that there will always be amnesty,” he said, in reply to a question about some 43,000 public servants who were allegedly involved in housing subsidy fraud… IAfrica.com Business News

We need more houses, cement / or other construction options

If South Africa wants to tackle its housing backlog, delivery will have to double and cement imports — already under pressure — will have to increase, the director general of the SA housing department said on Thursday.

According to Irumuleng Kotsoane, the current delivery rate of some 250,000 is not enough to both remove the backlog of around 2.4 million housing units, and to fulfill the supply to new urban residents.

He said at least 500,000 units will have to be built per year.

Massive challenge

He acknowledged, at a media briefing at Parliament, that the pressure to deliver so many housing units — and to reach the target of removing all informal settlements by 2014 — would be a significant challenge given that South Africa had also embarked on a massive capital investment drive to improve infrastructure including transport infrastructure. Business.IAfrica.com

Fix our shoddy homes - Cape flats residents

Residents from seven Cape Flats communities in Cape Town have had a meeting with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in Mitchell's Plein to discuss a solution to their five-year struggle to get their shoddy homes repaired.

The Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) offered residents low income rental housing from between R150 to R350 a month, that would be transferred into their names after five years.

But within months of moving in, huge flaws appeared in the houses. This forced some residents to fork out hundreds of rands more each month to fix up their homes.

'when you bath the water goes into the other room'

One Newfields resident, who would not to be named, called the houses "disasters". He said he had had spent about R10 000 on repairs in the five years he had been living there.

Newfields Village Residents' Committee chairperson Gary Hartzenberg said: "When we moved in we found we had to pay high rentals of nearly R1 000 per month for severely damaged houses built on a wetland. The houses were totally cracked, with some walls collapsing just a few months after residents moved in."

Nadeemha Birth, 33, a Newfields resident who moved into her three-bedroomed house five years ago, said she was extremely angry about her house.

"The walls are cracked and when you bath the water goes into the other room."

The 2 000 low-cost houses were built by the City of Cape Town, the National Housing Financial Corporation and the CTCHC in 2000.

Residents of the Newfields Village, Eastridge and Woodridge in Mitchell's Plain, Hanover Park phase one and two, Luyoloville and Heideveld battled for five years with the CTCHC to have their homes declared dysfunctional.

Earlier in the year, residents approached the CTCHC with the results of an independent survey on their houses which showed they were in a bad way.

The NHBRC launched an independent audit last month in which the construction of the houses is being evaluated. The NHBRC and the CTCHC met residents on Wednesday.

"We have won the war, but what we want now is to be guided and for the process to be kept open," said Hartzenberg.

Judy Ferdenando, social facilitator for the CTCHC, said several earlier housing inspections had not been not in line with NHBRC standards.

"In the NHBRC audit, each house will be looked at," said Ferdenando. "I can't say how long the audit will take."

She said 15 to 20 houses were being evaluated daily. So far, the Heideveld, Hanover Park and Woodridge areas had been completed. - Cape Argus

Finance Minister slams ‘dodgy’ housing figures

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has questioned figures showing that 1.9 million houses have been built since 1994 and whether these included the thousands still standing empty because of poor workmanship.

Asking what constituted a house, Manuel said: “I truly don’t believe that the numbers add up here.” He questioned whether the thousands of houses standing empty because of poor workmanship were included in the Provincial Government and Expenditure Review figures for the 2002/03 to 2008/09 financial years.

The report showed that 1,930,783 houses had been built or were under construction.

“I think the people here have the right to know. It does not put us at the top of the popularity contest but I think that people have the right to know and we must try and deal with these issues,” he said.

The report showed that while spending had more than doubled from R4 billion in 2002/03 to R8.7bn in 2008/09, there had been a “significant” decline in housing delivery. It cited poor planning and project management, unpredictable lead times and rezoning and environmental impact assessment processes as challenges. - Cape Times

Cape fires Kill, leave hundreds homeless

A three-year-old girl died and more than 130 people were left homeless after fires ravaged two informal settlements in the Western Cape on Saturday and Sunday, the SABC reported.

On Saturday, the child was killed and more than 60 people were left homeless after 15 shacks were destroyed in Wallacedene, near Kraaifontein.

On Sunday, the SABC reported that a second fire had surged through Joe Slovo Park, near Milnerton, leaving more than 70 residents of 29 dwellings homeless but unhurt.

Cape Town disaster management spokesperson Wilfred Solomon said that the cause of the fires was not known.

He said they were providing the necessary relief, accommodation, blankets and food as well as building materials to both communities. - Sapa

Shacks beneath damaged bridged, demolished

The City of Cape Town has broken down the shacks at the N7 Vanguard Drive railway bridge which had been damaged in a fire that destroyed about 70 other shacks and claimed the lives of two men two weeks ago.

The demolition was a day after mayoral committee member for housing, Dan Plato, said at a city meeting that no informal housing settlements would be allowed under bridges.

Plato said: “We won’t just go and evict people, it won’t just happen in a day or two, the eviction orders would form part of a process. We will only get these eviction orders when all other avenues have been exhausted.”

Plato also said that the city would continue to explore other options with the residents and come up with alternatives.

Angry residents refused to speak to the media, referring them to the police instead.

Cobus Potgieter, a former resident of the bridge, said that “law enforcement officials” came in the morning and broke down shacks and put residents’ possessions outside.

Adele Japhtas said: “I just came from work to check if all my things were still here. I didn’t see them breaking down our houses, I got there when they had already finished.” - Cape Times

Corruption creating a season of grievance

South Africans are angry about growing corruption, and that the politically well-connected seem to be the main beneficiaries of democracy, researchers said on Friday.

“It is a season of grievance,” the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation’s (IJR) Susan Brown said in Johannesburg.

Brown, the IJR’s political programme manager, and IJR director Professor Charles Villa-Vicencio presented the findings of the IJR’s 2006 transformation audit.

Brown edited the report, titled “Money and Morality”.

The audit shows how far South Africa has come in economic transformation and how far it still has to go.

Brown said there was huge anger among citizens over a perceived lack of delivery and lack of access to a closed elite.

“They (this elite) look perhaps to the next election but never to the next generation,” said Brown.

Corruption was identified as a key problem. - Business Report

Cement holds building hostage

Johannesburg - South Africa’s massive infrastructure development plans, which include the Gautrain rapid rail link and the refurbishment of stadiums for the soccer World Cup in 2010, will be held hostage by cement imports as local manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand.

Cement producers Natal Portland Cement, Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) and Lafarge are spending billions to boost plant capacity after being caught napping by faster-than-expected economic growth and a surge in housing and commercial property developments.

These expansion plans are only due to be completed in 2008 and, until then, manufacturers are having to import cement products to meet local demand. Because of high transport costs and the weakening rand, these imports are often sold at a loss. Business Report

With this in mind - InternAfrica realises that cement sold for a loss, certainly won’t go to developing low-income housing, and it is clear now that other forms of construction are now essential.

Housing MEC’s political games / Instead of Housing Delivery

Housing and Local Government MEC, Richard Dyantyi, says he has no problem should the City of Cape Town seek to challenge his decision to change the mayoral system through the legal process.

Dyantyi was speaking after an international housing conference where he said that sometimes he needed to make hard decisions even if they were unpopular… Bush Radio

InternAfrica would like to express great dismay that Richard Dyanti would use the international housing conference to discuss local politics and not housing delivery. A reflection of the political will to address the habitat crisis which is clearly beyond their capacity.

Turn ‘talk’ into Action - to solve the habitat crisis

President Thabo Mbeki says the country runs the risk of repeating past mistakes because South Africans do not listen to one another enough… SABC

Billy Masetlha, the former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general, has warned that the government must effectively tackle the land issue or it will eventually be forced into a Zimbabwe style land grab… SABC

Resolve your own Habitat Crisis

“Build a Cannabrick Home” Manual

World Urban Forum 3 (WUF3) 70 Actionable Ideas

Wind, sea and fire claim three lives

In Gugulethu, a man burnt to death at section NY 102 as fires devastated various parts of Cape Town.

Disaster Management spokesperson Greg Pillay said on Sunday: “Five shacks were destroyed in the Gugulethu fire and two people sustained burns and were taken to hospital.”

Fires also broke out in Masiphumelele and Philippi over the weekend. There were no reports of injuries, Pillay said.

The Philippi fire occurred at about 2am on Sunday and destroyed four shacks close to Stock Road. The Masiphumelele fire razed 150 shacks and displaced about 600 people. - Cape Times

Mbeki confronts housing issues

Port Elizabeth - President Thabo Mbeki acknowledged on Saturday that the Nelson Mandela Metropole had a housing problem that needed to be addressed.

According to SABC radio news reports, Mbeki toured the Dispatch area door-to-door, during which families brought their housing problems to his attention.

“We shall have to do something about it (the problem). It comes in different shapes and sizes but generally it’s a housing problem and I think that needs a lot of attention,” said Mbeki. - News24

Six hundred Cape Town residents homeless after fire

A fire in Fish Hoek, south of Cape Town, on Sunday morning left about 600 people homeless, Cape Town Disaster Management said.

About 150 shacks were destroyed in the fire, said spokesperson Johan Minnie.

“Fire fighting was severely hampered by strong south-easterly winds, but we managed to put out the fire by 4.15am.”

The cause of the fire was not yet known. Emergency shelters, food and blankets would be provided by the Cape Town municipality. Building materials would also be provided to the displaced residents.

Minnie said a few fire fighters were treated for smoke inhalation. He could not give an estimated cost of the damage. - Sapa

‘Poverty - not terrorism - a threat to SA’

Poverty and under-development are the biggest threats to South Africa and other developing countries and not the threat of terrorism currently facing the developed world, according to Imtiaz Fazel from the office of the inspector-general of Intelligence.

Fazel was speaking after the International Intelligence Review Agencies Conference held in Cape Town this week.

It was attended by delegates from Australia, Canada, Norway, Gambia and Namibia.

Fazel said the main challenge facing local and continental intelligence agencies was the effects of rampant poverty and underdevelopment.

Threats could come from a “disillusioned populace” as opposed to the threat of terrorism facing the developed world. Full Story Daily NEWS

Volunteers gear-up for fire season

As the country approaches the ‘traditional’ fire season, the Western Cape disaster management together with City of Cape Town and Development Bank have launched an initiative to teach volunteers elementary firefighting and first aid to assist in emergencies in their communities. Full Story…

Mayor Helen Zille looks at our city

In Cape Town we have seen this tragic situation play itself out around several key areas.

One of the most serious of these is housing.

With a backlog of nearly 400,000 housing units and the annual arrival of 16,000 people who have no jobs or houses, the demand for decent housing has reached critical proportions.

And many of our people have been waiting for up to 20 years on a list that keeps on growing. This is creating serious social divisions, not only along race lines. It has led to major public protests. It has also led to approximately five land invasions a week, which sometimes result in violent clashes.

So far the problem has not been tackled adequately. The government has only made financial provision to deliver 7 000 housing opportunities a year, and that is only if the existing budget is spent, which hasn’t been the case for the last few years.

The N2 Gateway Project, which Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu promised would deliver 20 000 units by this year, has so far only resulted in 700 rental flats, in an unsustainable, unaffordable programme.

And already the communities that were supposed to benefit from the project are polarising around who can and can’t afford these flats.

The shortage of housing in our city is a serious problem in its own right, but it is symptomatic of a deeper problem, which is unemployment.

About 25 % or 450,000 of Cape Town’s economically active adult population are unemployed, and over 60% of our city’s adult population do not have a matric.

This has created tensions around who does and who doesn’t have access to jobs. Recently we witnessed violent protests over certain ward councillors who sought to determine which members of the community should get work for solid waste removal in Khayelitsha.

We have also witnessed the brutal killing of a number of Somalian refugees who have been targeted for their success in small businesses. And the taxi wars continue to flare up over the limited availability of key routes.

It is clear that the economy is simply not creating enough new business opportunities and jobs to significantly change this situation.

The national government has calculated that we need to push economic growth in this region up to at least 8% by 2010 if we want to reduce unemployment significantly.

During 2005 the Western Cape economy grew by 5.3%, and it is predicted to slump to a 4.7% average for the next three years.

If we want to change this, we are going to have to work very hard, and very strategically. This means unlocking the power of the private sector, particularly small and medium enterprises.

As local government, there are things we can do to encourage investment and job creation.

We must improve service delivery, and make sure the city is an investor-friendly destination. We need to make it cleaner and safer, and we need to spend adequately on roads, electricity, water, libraries and other forms of infrastructure.

We also need to cut down on red tape, and build partnerships between business and the government that can tackle serious developmental challenges like housing and job shortages.

And we can release land and title deeds for housing, which will give the poorest of the poor a foothold in the economy by giving them some stable collateral and fixed assets.

While a growing economy is one of the most important ways to ensure that Cape Town stays on the path towards tolerance, there is another key factor that influences race relations and social cohesion - political leadership. Full Story Cape Argus

Fire gas blast kills two, damages N7 bridge

A tank containing household gas exploded, damaging a bridge on the N7 highway at Akasia Park in the Goodwood area early on Monday morning.

The blast happened during an informal settlement fire in which two people were killed.

Western Cape police spokesman Superintendent Billy Jones said that part of the highway would likely be closed to traffic for the day, and KFm news reported that the road was to be closed to traffic in both directions.

No further details were available. - Sapa

Matatiele residents ‘misinformed on RDP houses’

Residents to hear about the planned registration of people for RDP houses in the Matatiele area

Fanie van Zyl, Matatiele’s acting municipal manager in the Eastern Cape, says he is to meet residents of the area today to discuss what he terms ‘misinformation’ about the planned registration of people for Reconstruction and Development (RDP) houses.

This comes after the angry residents held him hostage. Locals say the registration drive had failed. Van Zyl says the meeting will seek to establish who sent out an incorrect message.

“We are going to meet today to try and establish who sent the incorrect information and then we will plan forward from there. It was just people that surrounded my vehicle, and while I was telling some of the people to get into my vehicle, they surrounded the vehicle and put a few stones under the wheels so that I could not move. Within five minutes, the SAPS arrived and they addressed the crowd,” Van Zyl said. SABC

Two die as fire causes N1 traffic jam

Shack fires leave hundreds homeless each year...

Two people have died in a shack fire that destroyed about 70 dwellings in the Acasia Park

Two people have died in a shack fire that destroyed about 70 dwellings leaving 200 homeless in the Acasia Park informal settlement under the bridge at the N7 offramp, with the N1 near Goodwood in the Cape Peninsula. The fire was so intense that it damaged the bridge, forcing the closure of the N7.

A fire brigade spokesperson says the two people were burned beyond recognition. The fire was reported shortly before 1am.

Traffic officers are at the scene to divert traffic around the closed section of the N7.